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Saturday, January 06, 2007

Weekend Cat Blogging - Welcome, Kittens!

I was pretty much sure that Glinda would have her babies the same night we were having a huge, 13-course gourmet dinner. And indeed! Halfway into the evening, right in time for the cheese course, she started. And we ended up with four absolutely gorgeous little miracles, and some very awed guests that had never witnessed a kitten birth before.

Here's a first picture of them. You can't see very well, but there are two black and white boys, a brownspotted and white boy and a brownspotted girl, just like mommy. Glinda is doing very well and is happy with her new role.

Names? These will all start with a J, and I like to have a good theme. We're thinking candy (Junior Mint, Jolly Rancher, Jelly Belly, Jujubes), whisky (Jim Beam, Johnny Walker, Jack(ie) Daniels, Jameson) or Shakespeare characters (after all, they are born on Twelth Night - Jupiter, Jamy, Juno and... we're not sure.).

They're gorgeous. The available names in the J-section of the Shakespeare naming department could be better. Aside from those you have listed, I can draw to mind and have checked them for reference against main characters and found Jessica (!), Jaquenetta and Juliet for girls. Julius (julian) for boys.

Pene and Jessica, Shakespeare sure is looking good.. but Jessica, where did you find a Julius? I didn't find that in the lists I looked at, but that's a very good name! Jupiter, Jamy, Juno and Julius... I prefer Juno over Julia (which is Juliet in Swedish) though. Or maybe not.. hm.

I am one of those people who have never seen cats being born and in connection with this, I have a question: does the momma cat not mind at all when her kittens are being handled? Is it because she knows and trusts you? Would she let a stranger handle the kittens? What do the kittens do when they are born? Do they know to go to momma and eat right away or do they try to walk around? They are born blind, is that right?How long does the blindness last?

Anna, it's different each time! Glinda is a very mild-tempered cat and didn't mind at all having an audience. She was fine with having both me and my neighbor the vet handling her and the babies. It's easy at first - they don't mind much at all. Today, she gets nervous if the kittens squeak, which they inevitably do if you lift them. It's fine though - the more you handle them, the more they get used to your scent.

They pretty much go to eat straightaway. Some need a little nudging. They have something like a heat-sensitive radar in their nose (sounds weird, I know) and thus find their way to the nipple quite easily.

And they're actually both blind and deaf. They open their eyes usually after about a week, ten days, and they hear from just a few days. :)

Oh, Anne!Congratulations on the new kittens! They're gorgeous! I vote for the Shakespeake names! But if you want another alternative to consider, I googled these pretty sounding plant names: http://www.plantpress.com/plant-encyclopedia/plantdbatoz.php?letter=j

just sharlene - no, we won't be keeping any. If one of the black and whites had been a girl, that one would definitely have stayed.. but no, we can't keep boys, and we already have two brown spotted tabby girls. So all are for sale at this point! :)